Nice to meet everyone. I am brand new to metal detecting. I confess I became interested into the hobby after watching the TV series Detectorists. I have just purchased the Minelab Equinox 800 and a Pro Find 35 Pinpointer.

An acquaintance told me that the Equinox 800 is too complicated for a beginner. I was wondering if I should store the 800 and buy a cheaper ($200-$300) detector and learn to use it before I touch the 800.

Nah, anyone can use a nox but once you get the hang of it there's plenty of tweaking that you can do. I'd stick to park mode 1 and beach mode 1 at first and read up in the manual how to noise cancel and ground balance. If you play with the settings and find that what you did doesn't work just hold the mode button down for about 4 seconds and it will restore factory settings for the mode you are currently in. The best way to find out what the tones and target ID's are is to dig it up and see but most of the interesting stuff will give an ID of 17 to 30 and a high pitched loud tone. Good luck and most importantly, don't dig big holes in parks or town, fill ya holes back in and take any rubbish you dig home with you.